Advanced Distributed Systems

CHAPTER -1
Introduction to Distributed Systems

Dr. Bharat Kumar G J

 Definition
• 1940 – 1980 computers were Large and Expensive and No
inter connecting mechanisms
• 1980 – 2 advances in technology changed the world
• The first was the development of powerful microprocessors.
Initially, these were 8-bit machines, but soon 16-, 32-, and
64-bit CPUs became common. Many of these had the
computing power large computer, but for a fraction of the
price.
• The second development was the invention of high-speed
computer networks. Local-area networks or LANs allow
hundreds of machines within a building to be connected in
such a way that small amounts of information can be
transferred between machines in a few microseconds or so.
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 Definition
• Larger amounts of data can be transferred between
computers form some KBps to GBps.
• Wide-area networks or WANs allow milIions of machines all
over the earth to be connected at speeds varying from 64
Kbps (kilobits per second) to gigabits per second
• The result of these technologies is that it is now not only
feasible, but easy, to put together computing systems
composed of large numbers of computers connected by a
high-speed network. They are usually called computer
networks or distributed systems, in contrast to the previous
centralized systems (or single processor systems) consisting
of a single computer, its peripherals, and perhaps some
remote terminals.
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 Definition
A distributed system is a collection of independent computers
that appears to its users as a single coherent system.
• This definition has 2 important aspects.
• 1. A distributed system consists of components (i.e., computers) that
are autonomous.
• 2. Users (be they people or programs) think they are dealing with a
single system.
• This means that one way or the other the autonomous components
need to collaborate.
• There is no limitations on type of computers may be largest
computer like main frames to smallest sensor nodes.
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 Characteristics of DS
• One important characteristic is that differences between the
various computers and the ways in which they communicate are
mostly hidden from users.
• Another important characteristic is that users and applications
can interact with a distributed system in a consistent and uniform
way, regardless of where and when interaction takes place.
• distributed systems should also be relatively easy to expand or
scale. This characteristic is a direct consequence of having
independent computers, but at the same time, hiding how these
computers actually take part in the system as a whole. A
distributed system will normally be continuously available,
although perhaps some parts may be temporarily out of order.
Users and applications should not notice that parts are being
replaced or fixed, or that new parts are added to serve more
users or applications
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 Characteristics of DS
• In order to support heterogeneous computers and networks while
offering a single-system view, distributed systems are often organized
by means of a layer of software-that is

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 Characteristics of DS
• logically placed between a higher-level layer consisting of users
and applications, and a layer underneath consisting of operating
systems and basic communication facilities, Accordingly, such a
distributed system is sometimes called middleware.
• Application B is distributed across computers 2 and 3.
• Each application is offered the same interface.
• The distributed system provides the means for components of
single distributed application to communicate with each other,
but also to let different applications communicate.
• At the same time, it hides, as best and reasonable as possible,
the differences in hardware and operating systems from each
application
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 GOALS
•four important goals that should be met
to make building a distributed system
worth the effort.
•Making Resources Accessible
•Distribution Transparency
•Scalability

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 Making Resources Accessible
• The main goal of a distributed system is to make it easy for
the users (and applications) to access remote resources, and
to share them in a controlled and efficient way.
• Resources can be just about anything, but typical examples
include things like printers, computers, storage facilities,
data, files, Web pages, and networks etc.
• There are many reasons for wanting to share resources. One
obvious reason is that of economics. For example, it is
cheaper to let a printer be shared by several users in a small
office than having to buy and maintain a separate printer for
each user.
• connectivity and sharing increase, security is becoming
increasingly important.
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 Distribution Transparency
• An important goal of a distributed system is to hide
the fact that its processes and resources are
physically distributed across multiple computers.
• A distributed system that is able to present itself to
users and applications as if it were only a single
computer system is said to be transparent.
• Degree of Transparency Although distribution
transparency is generally considered preferable for
any distributed system, there are situations in which
attempting to completely hide all distribution
aspects from users is not a good idea.
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 Distribution Transparency
• Types of Transparency:

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 Scalability
• Scalability of a system can be measured along at
least three different dimensions (Neuman, 1994).
• First, a system can be scalable with respect to its
size, meaning that we can easily add more users and
resources to the system.
• Second, a geographically scalable system is one in
which the users and resources may lie far apart.
• Third, a system can be administratively scalable, that
it can still be easy to manage even if it spans many
independent administrative organizations.
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 TYPES OF DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
3 types:
1. Distributed Computing Systems
2. Distributed Information Systems
3. Distributed Pervasive Systems

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 Distributed Computing Systems
Based on computing architecture
1. Cluster Computing Systems
In cluster computing the underlying hardware consists of a
collection of similar workstations or PCs, closely connected
by means of a same highspeed local-area network. In
addition, each node runs the same operating system.
2. Grid Computing Systems
• constructed as a computer systems, where each system
may fall under a different administrative domain, and may
be very different when it comes to hardware, software,
and deployed network technology.
• high degree of heterogeneity:
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no assumptions
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are made 14
 Distributed Information Systems
Based on information processing
Transaction Processing Systems
Operations on a database are usually
carried out in the form of transactions

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 Distributed Pervasive Systems
• Based on instability of network
• Mobile computing devices.
• small, battery-powered, mobile, and having only a
wireless connection.
• Eg:
• Home Systems – integrate typical consumer
electronics such as TVs, audio and video equipment.
Gaming devices, (smart) phones, PDAs, and other
personal wearables into a single system.
• Electronic Health Care Systems - devices are being
developed to monitor the well-being of individuals
and to automatically contact physicians when needed
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 ARCHITECTURAL STYLES
•4 basic styles
1. Layered architectures
2. Object-based architectures
3. Data-centered architectures
4. Event-based architectures
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 Layered architectures

• component at layer L; is allowed to call components at the underlying

layer Li+
• This model has been widely adopted by the networking community
• control generally flows from layer to layer: requests go down the hierarchy
whereas the results flow upward.
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 Object-based architectures

• Each object corresponds a component, and

• These components are connected through a (remote)
procedure call mechanism
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 Data-centered architectures
Component Component

Component
Component

• Data-centered architectures evolve around the idea

that processes communicate through a common
repository
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 Event-based architectures

• In event-based architectures, processes essentially communicate

through the propagation of events, which optionally also carry data
• The basic idea is that processes publish events after which the
middleware ensures that only those processes that subscribed to
those events will receive them
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ARCHITECTURES vs MIDDLEWARE

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 ARCHITECTURES vs MIDDLEWARE
• Middleware forms a layer between applications and
distributed platforms.
• An important purpose is to provide a degree of distribution
transparency, that is, to a certain extent hiding the distribution
of-data, processing, and control from applications.
• What is commonly seen in practice is that middleware systems
actually follow a specific architectural style.
• For example, many middleware solutions have adopted an
object-based architectural style, such as CORBA (OMG.
2004a). Others, like TIB/Rendezvous (TIBCO, 2005) provide
middleware that follows the event-based architectural style.
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 ARCHITECTURES vs MIDDLEWARE
• Having middleware molded according to a specific
architectural style has the benefit that designing applications
may become simpler.
• However, an obvious drawback is that the middleware may
no longer be optimal for what an application developer had
in mind.
• For example, COREA initially offered only objects that could
be invoked by remote clients.
• Later, it was felt that having only this form of interaction was
too restrictive, so that other interaction patterns such as
messaging were added.
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 ARCHITECTURES vs MIDDLEWARE
•In addition, although middleware is meant
to provide distribution transparency, it is
generally felt that specific solutions should
be adaptable to application requirements.
•One solution to this problem is to make
several versions of a middleware system,
where each version is tailored to a specific
class of applications.
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 ARCHITECTURES vs MIDDLEWARE
• An approach that is generally considered better is to
make middleware systems such that they are easy to
configure, adapt, and customize as needed by an
application.
• As a result, systems are now being developed in which
a stricter separation between policies and
mechanisms is being made.
• This has led to several mechanisms by which the
behaviour of middleware can be modified .Let us take
a look at some of the commonly followed approaches.
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 Interceptors
• An interceptor is nothing but a software
construct that will break the usual flow of
control and allow other (application specific)
code to be executed.
• interception as supported in many object based
distributed systems. The basic idea is simple: an
object A can call a method that belongs to an
object B, while the latter resides on a different
machine than A.
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 Interceptors
remote-object invocation is carried as a three-step approach:
1. Object A is offered a local interface that is exactly the
same as the interface offered by object B. A simply calls
the method available in' that interface.
2. The call by A is transformed into a generic object
invocation, made possible through a general object-
invocation interface offered by the middleware at the
machine where A resides.
3. Finally, the generic object invocation is transformed into
a message that is sent through the transport-level network
interface as offered by A's local operating system.
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 Interceptors

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 Interceptors
• call such as invoke(B, &do_something, value) with a reference to B's
method and the parameters that go along with the call.
• Now imagine that object B is replicated. In that case, each replica
should actually be invoked. This is a clear point where interception
can help.
• What the request-level interceptor will do is simply call invoke(B,
&do_something, value) for each of the replicas. The beauty of this an
is that the object A need not be aware of the replication of B, but also
the object middleware need not have special components that deal
with this replicated call.
• Only the request-level interceptor, which may be added to the
middleware needs to know about B's replication.

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 Interceptors
• In the end, a call to a remote object will have to be sent over
the network.
• For example, imagine that the parameter value actually
corresponds to a huge array of data.
• In that case, it may be wise to fragment the data into smaller
parts to have it assembled again at the destination. Such a
fragmentation may improve performance or reliability.
• Again, the middleware need not be aware of this
fragmentation; the lower-level interceptor will transparently
handle the rest of the communication with the local
operating system.
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 General Approaches to Adaptive Software
• What interceptors actually offer is a means to adapt the
middleware.
• The need for adaptation comes from the fact that the
environment in which distributed applications are
executed changes continuously.
• Changes include those resulting from mobility, a strong
variance in the quality-of-service of networks, failing
hardware, and battery drainage, amongst others.
• Rather than making applications responsible for reacting
to changes, this task is placed in the middleware.
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 General Approaches to Adaptive Software
• These strong influences from the environment have
brought many designers of middleware to consider
the construction of adaptive software.
• As many researchers and developers consider it to be
an important aspect of modern distributed systems,
distinguish three basic techniques to come to
software adaptation:
1. Separation of concerns
2. Computational reflection
3. Component-based design
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 General Approaches to Adaptive Software
Separating concerns relates to the traditional way of modularizing
systems:
• separate the parts that implement functionality from those that take
care of other things (known as extra functionalities) such as reliability,
performance, security, etc.
• One can argue that developing middleware for distributed
applications is largely about handling extra functionalities
independent from applications.
• The main problem is that we cannot easily separate these extra
functionalities by means of modularization.
• For example, simply putting security into a separate module is not
going to work. Likewise, it is hard to imagine how fault tolerance can
be isolated into a separate box and sold as an independent service.
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 General Approaches to Adaptive Software
• Computational reflection refers to the ability of a program to
inspect itself and, if necessary, adapt its behaviour .
• Reflection has been built into programming languages,
including Java, and offers a powerful facility for runtime
modifications.
• In addition, some middleware systems provide the means to
apply reflective techniques.
• However, just as in the case of aspect orientation, reflective
middleware has yet to prove itself as a powerful tool to
manage the complexity of large-scale distributed systems.
• As mentioned by Blair et al. (2004), applying reflection to a
broad domain of applications is yet to be done.
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 General Approaches to Adaptive Software
• Finally, component-based design supports adaptation
through composition.
• A system may either be configured statically at design time,
or dynamically at runtime.
• The latter requires support for late binding, a technique that
has been successfully applied in programming language
environments, but also for operating systems where modules
can be loaded and unloaded at will.
• Research is now well underway to allow automatically
selection of the best implementation of a component during
runtime
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Self Management in DS - Feedback Control Systems
• High-level feedback-control systems allowing automatic
adaptations to changes. This phenomenon is also known
as autonomic computing.
• The latter name indicates the variety by which automatic
adaptations are being captured: self-managing, self-
healing, self-configuring, self-optimizing, and so on.
• There are many different views on self-managing
systems, but what most have in common (either explicitly
or implicitly) is the assumption that adaptations take
place by means of one or more feedback control loops.

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Feedback Control Systems

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